Sorority bands together to help sister

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Amanda Wood, a senior business marketing major, is receiving support from her sorority through donations after a medically-induced coma and multiple surgeries. Photo courtesy of Lindsey Metzger

Amanda Wood woke up one day from what seemed like one night’s sleep to doctors and family members explaining that she had been in a medically-induced coma for about a month.

What started as pancreatitis became more serious with infections, which eventually led to the removal of Wood’s small intestine. Doctors at Sutter Medical Center had to put Wood in a medically-induced coma to take away the excruciating pain from all of the surgeries.

Wood, a senior business management major, is a member of Alpha Gamma Delta. Lindsey Metzger, a business and legal studies major and one of Wood’s sorority sisters, has been in contact with her sister and keeping up with her progress..

“She’s still a little emotionally confused as to what happened and that makes sense,” Metzger said. “I mean, you’re asleep for a month and you wake up and you thought it was overnight but it was actually a month.”

The next step in Wood’s recovery is to be flown to UCLA for a final surgery. She will be getting a small intestine transplant.

“The doctor at UCLA is world-renowned and is in the top three in the country for dealing with small bowel issues,” Wood said. “He is honestly the best option for me and I am very excited to move on and work with him to get better.”

To help fund this surgery, the sorority has been fundraising and sending all the help they can to Wood and her family.

At one the sorority’s philanthropy events, Messy Twister with Paint, water and paint balloons were sold at the chapter house to help raise money. It was able to raise $156 with the proceeds alone.

The sorority also organized a three-day event at restaurants. Amanda Lincoln, a senior criminal justice major, chose some of Wood’s favorite restaurants in Chico to hold the fundraisers.

“Amanda really loves cheese,” Lincoln said. “It’s her favorite food. She’s obsessed with it. We wanted to find restaurants that have a lot of cheese on everything, and so that’s honestly part of the reason that we picked these three restaurants.”

Beach Hut Deli gave 20 percent of their proceeds to Wood and raised $105 between 6-9 p.m. Oct. 7.

Madison Bear Garden donated $1 for every flier brought in to the restaurant and raised $105 from 4-10 p.m. Oct. 8.

Woodstock’s Pizza gave 15 percent of their proceeds to Wood and raised $76 from 6-9 p.m. Oct. 9.

“Amanda would love it if she could actually eat it with us,” Metzger said. “But we told her about it and I just saw the flicker in her eyes.”

Sororities across the country are contributing to the effort to help Wood through Alpha Gamma Delta’s GoFundMe page for donations.

“We’ve had sisters already from Hawaii and Georgia from different AGD chapters donate to her,” Metzger said.

When the GoFundMe page had only been live for less than 24 hours, the sorority raised $1,500. Now they have raised more than $3,770.

The donations are extremely important because insurance will not cover the $20,000 helicopter ride and the $7,500 ambulance ride, Metzger said.

“She’s been very optimistic the entire time,” Lincoln said. “She just wants to move forward and not let this hinder her future.”

Depending on support and recovery, doctors and family members are hoping to have Wood back at Chico State by spring semester.

“It feels incredible to have all of the support I have been given,” Wood said. “I have always tried to be caring and selfless, so to see people being the same way towards me is incredible.”